


Kindred and Free

by Rosage



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 09:00:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28792830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosage/pseuds/Rosage
Summary: Hilda discovers Hapi’s rock collection and gets her own ideas about it.
Relationships: Hilda Valentine Goneril/Hapi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Kindred and Free

**Author's Note:**

> Belatedly for [Hapi Week's](https://twitter.com/hapi_week) free day and Hapi’s birthday. Thank you, event organizer!

Hapi lies on her stomach beneath a tree, sharing her blanket with an array of stones. Some gleam between the dappled shadows, while duller ones are shaped like animals or printed with fossil-like patterns. She kicks her legs and hums. When it might be safe to sigh, she never wants to. There’s nobody around to bother her, or get eaten by monsters, or steal what little she can collect.

Inhaling the smells of dirt and tree sap, fresher than Abyss’s stale air, she runs her hand over one of the mossy roots she’s nestled between. A squirrel roots around, its snout twitching. Maybe it forgot where it left its own hoard. It jerks its head and darts up the tree, and her fingers clench around the root. Company.

She grabs the blanket’s edge, prepared to wrap up her stones and skedaddle. Most of it’s not worth much, but some looks like it might be. A hum higher than her own reaches her as bobbing pink hair crests the hill.

“Oh, Hapi! What are you doing up here?” Hilda asks.

“Hey, Twin Tails. Just minding my own business.”

“Some people could learn from your example.” Hilda stands just beyond the tree’s shade and clasps her hands behind her back. The sun bathes her cheeks as she lifts her face skyward, the light spreading more softly than it does on the rocks. Hapi releases the blanket. 

Hilda’s attention turns downward. “What a lovely collection,” she says. “May I touch them?”

“You can look. Don’t touch.” 

Bending low, Hilda points at the shiniest stone. “Is that—oh, no, the merchant didn’t tell you it was gold, did they?”

“No, I found it. Like the rest.” When you avoid people, you notice the little things, things hidden in dirt or dark corners.

“You found all of these? You have a good eye. Have you ever tried making accessories?” Hilda bobs, making the hoops in her ears swing, gold with little rubies. 

“That’s not really my thing.”

“Too bad. This one would make a nice necklace.” She points at a round rock, red like her gems. It fell from the wall in Abyss back when Hapi tried to claw her way out. She soon gave up on the effort, instead turning the smooth stone around and around in her palm, until her skin warmed it.

“It is what it is.” Hapi’s stomach aches where it’s pressed against the ground. Nothing needs to be whittled away, made more useful. Ruined. She pets the moss again until the urge to sign subsides. “Besides, I can’t exactly afford gold chains for these.” 

“Well, I wouldn’t expect you to get me all the materials,” Hilda says.

“You’re offering to make them? Is this some kind of trick?”

Hilda tilts her chin. “If it was, would it work?”

“No.”

“What a waste of energy, then.”

“We can agree on that.”

Hilda straightens and stretches muscular arms overhead, looking up at the branches where the squirrel disappeared. “Besides, I only want people to help me if they want to.”

“I guess that makes sense. You don’t really try to push or change people. I like that about you,” Hapi says.

Hilda stares at her, the airy lilt in her voice vanishing. “Where’s this coming from?”

“I’m just saying what I think. Even when we don’t agree, you never judge the way I live my life.”

Maybe it’s the way Hilda’s head dips into the shadows, but her cheeks seem to darken. “As long as that’s all you expect from me, I guess it’s fine.”

“I don’t really expect much of anyone.” 

“You don’t, do you? You could say that’s what I like about you.” The lilt returns, slower and more pointed than before.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hapi asks.

“Nothing. Now, do you mind if I nap here? If I go back, people are going to ask me to work more, and I’m so beat.”

After gathering up her rocks, Hapi moves the blanket so they can lie side-by-side. Instead, Hilda curls up like a cat in a sunbeam, her warmth closer than Hapi anticipated. Guess she can’t let her twin tails drag in the dirt.

Hapi lies on her back, tucking an arm behind her head, and studies her oddest treasure before closing her eyes.


End file.
